Even before the entry into force of the ICC Statute, glimpses of the shape of things to come are evident. Increasingly, states are conducting prosecutions against their own nationals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Moreover, states in the vanguard of the war against impunity, in particular, Belgium and Spain, have started to take advantage of the principle of universal jurisdiction, which enables states to prosecute non-nationals for crimes committed abroad against non-nationals.
In a departure from the traditional view that there should be some connection between the criminal and the state of prosecution, states are increasingly recognising that certain crimes are so serious that all states have an interest in prosecuting them. Thus, on 8 June, in a landmark judgement, a jury in Belgium found four Rwandan nationals, including two nuns, guilty of war crimes in connection with the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. More such prosecutions, both of states’ own nationals and under the principle of universal jurisdiction, are pending in a plethora of jurisdictions.
Such efforts may not in the short-term impact on the incidence of serious international criminality but they are far from being trivial or purely symbolic. The walls are starting to close in on war criminals, genocidaires and the like. Gradually, but with increasing momentum, international humanitarian law is gaining substance and weight. Its former characterisation as being at the vanishing point of international law (itself considered to reside at the thin end of law generally) is being replaced by a sense that it is law in the true sense of the word: that is, law that can be enforced in a court of law.
The challenge to solidify these trends in international criminal justice is far from over but the march of international justice seems ineluctable.
Avril McDonald
Avril McDonald is Managing Editor of the Yearbook of International Law and a researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut for International Law in The Hague, The Netherlands. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in International Law at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In a departure from the traditional view that there should be some connection between the criminal and the state of prosecution, states are increasingly recognising that certain crimes are so serious that all states have an interest in prosecuting them. Thus, on 8 June, in a landmark judgement, a jury in Belgium found four Rwandan nationals, including two nuns, guilty of war crimes in connection with the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. More such prosecutions, both of states’ own nationals and under the principle of universal jurisdiction, are pending in a plethora of jurisdictions.
Such efforts may not in the short-term impact on the incidence of serious international criminality but they are far from being trivial or purely symbolic. The walls are starting to close in on war criminals, genocidaires and the like. Gradually, but with increasing momentum, international humanitarian law is gaining substance and weight. Its former characterisation as being at the vanishing point of international law (itself considered to reside at the thin end of law generally) is being replaced by a sense that it is law in the true sense of the word: that is, law that can be enforced in a court of law.
The challenge to solidify these trends in international criminal justice is far from over but the march of international justice seems ineluctable.
Avril McDonald
Avril McDonald is Managing Editor of the Yearbook of International Law and a researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut for International Law in The Hague, The Netherlands. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in International Law at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.